Drilbur Line/B2W2
Drilbur can be found in dust clouds in Relic Passage, Chargestone Cave and Mistralton Cave. In Relic Passage, Drilbur varying between level 16 and 19 appear with an encounter rate of 80%. In both Chargestone Cave and Mistralton Cave, they have an encounter rate of 100%, and appear between levels 25 and 31 in Chargestone Cave, and between 27 and 30 in Mistralton Cave. Wild Excadrill can be found in dust clouds in Reversal Mountain, Seaside Cave, Giant Chasm, Victory Road, Twist Mountain, Clay Tunnel and Wellspring Cave. In Reversal Mountain, it will appear between level 32 and 35. In Seaside Cave, its levels vary from 34 to 37 on 1F, and 39 to 42 on B1F. In Giant Chasm, its levels will be between 44 and 47. In Victory Road, its levels will be between 41 and 44 in the southern cave, and in all other caves it will be 47 to 50. In both Twist Mountain and Clay Tunnel, their levels will vary from 54 to 57. Finally, in Wellspring Cave, their levels are between 55 and 58. In all these locations, Excadrill has an 100% encounter rate, except in Victory Road, where it has an encounter rate of 80%, and in Twist Mountain and Clay Tunnel, where the encounter rate is 75%. Poor Drilbur never got too much love. It has a bland type, so-so stats, and a horrible learnset in the early game. However, once Drilbur evolves into Excadrill, you got one of the biggest powerhouses in all of Unova in your team. Excadrill's new type is Ground/Steel, which gives it a lot more resistances. That is combined with Excadrill having one of the highest Attack stats in whole Unova, namely a whopping 135. And, as an added bonus, Excadrill's movepool gets a lot better just before its evolution. And the best of it all? If you use Repels, you're almost guaranteed to catch one of these. They have a high encounter rate in the dust clouds, in most caves even one of 100%. Important Matchups - Challenge Mode = * Gym #3 - Burgh (Castelia City, Bug-type): Use Metal Claw or Dig to take Dwebble out quickly. Karrablast is possible, but not recommended, as you can't hit it hard. Shelmet knows Mega Drain, stay away. Don't bother with Leavanny, as it can use the super effective Razor Leaf. * Colress (Route 4): Use Dig for victory. Magnemite will survive a hit, because of Sturdy, but will go down soon afterwards. There's really nothing Colress can do against Drilbur. * Gym #4 - Elesa (Nimbasa City, Electric-type): Emolga knows Aerial Ace. For your own safety, stay away. Flaaffy isn't hard, Dig takes it out. Joltik knows Energy Ball, so don't bother. Zebstrika can hit with Stomp, but Dig should OHKO or 2HKO it. Be careful, though, as one critical Stomp might 2HKO Drilbur. Eviolite will help here. * Rood (Driftveil City): If you don't have Excadrill yet, then don't bother. Both Herdier and Swoobat hit too hard for the likes of Drilbur. If you do have Excadrill, then feel free to sweep through Rood's team by using Dig on Herdier and Rock Tomb on Swoobat. * Gym #5 - Clay (Driftveil City, Ground-type): Drilbur shouldn't bother, yet again. Excadrill has now the problem of being partly Steel-type, and thus weak to Ground. Keep it away from Krokorok and Sandslash. Onix isn't too hard. It can survive one Dig or Earthquake from Excadrill, thanks to Sturdy, but will do down to a second, and lacks the power to strike back hard. If your Excadrill is higher leveled than Clay's, and not slowed down because of Onix's Bulldoze, feel free to take it out with Earthquake. Be careful, though. If you're slower, then you risk losing your Excadrill to a critical Bulldoze. * Hugh (Pokémon World Tournament): You can ace this battle without a problem. Dig or Earthquake takes out Simisear, Simipour, Pignite and Dewott, Rock Slide beats Tranquill, and Return defeats Servine and Simisage. If you don't have Return, then take the latter two out with Rock Slide. If you still have Drilbur, then only let it battle Pignite and Simisear, which it can take out with Dig, and Tranquill, which goes down to Rock Slide. * Cheren (Pokémon World Tournament, Normal-type): Excadrill should Earthquake or Dig away to beat everything Cheren can throw at it. If you still have Drilbur, then keep it away. * Colress (Pokémon World Tournament): Excadrill sweeps Colress without a problem with Dig or Earthquake. Magneton might survive a hit thanks to its Sturdy, but it could have Magnet Pull as well. Even Drilbur is able to ace this battle. * Gym #6 - Skyla (Mistralton City, Flying-type): Swoobat knows Energy Ball, which shouldn't be too troubling. Use Rock Slide to defeat it. Skarmory has no way of hitting Excadrill, and despite having an insane Defense stat, it will fall to Rock Slide as well. Sigilyph knows Psychic and Hypnosis, but yet again, Rock Slide is powerful enough to defeat it. Stay away from Swanna, as it knows the powerful Water-type move Surf. * Hugh (Undella Town): Unfezant gets beaten down by Rock Slide, Emboar can't take Earthquake. Simisear might be able to outspeed you and hit with Flame Burst, so stay away. Simipour and Samurott know Water-type moves and can't be OHKO'd, don't battle them. Simisage is able to outspeed, and could 2HKO with a critical Seed Bomb. Try to not battle it either. Serperior can set up on Excadrill with Coil and Leaf Blade. Don't battle that one either. * Zinzolin (Lacunosa Town, tag battle with Hugh): Not dangerous. Cryogonal knows how to use Reflect and Ice Beam, but Rock Slide or Iron Head finishes it off. Same thing happens to Sneasel. The Grunt's Golbat can't take Rock Slide, and Garbodor faints after taking Earthquake to the face. * Gym #7 - Drayden (Opelucid City, Dragon-type): Druddigon knows Revenge, Flygon Earth Power and Altaria Fire Blast. Needless to say, these three are to be avoided. Haxorus can try to set up Dragon Dance, but has no moves to hit Excadrill hard with. Use Earthquake to take it out. * Zinzolin (Opelucid City): Iron Head takes out his whole team. Alternatively, use Rock Slide, as that takes out his whole team as well. Watch out for the Cryogonal, as they might be able to outspeed you, and use Confuse Ray or Ice Beam. The first Cryogonal knows Reflect as well. * Shadow (Opelucid City): Both Pawniard get knocked out by Earthquake, Absol goes down to either Earthquake or X-Scissor. Nice and easy victory. * Gym #8 - Marlon (Humilau City, Water-type): No. Just no. All of Marlon's Pokémon know the powerful Water-type move Scald. Don't bother. * Zinzolin (Plasma Frigate, tag battle with Hugh): Cryogonal can get annoying by outspeeding and hitting with Ice Beam or Confuse Ray, but Iron Head or Rock Slide takes them out. Watch out, as the first one can use Reflect. Weavile has Ice Shard as its best move to hit Excadrill. Rock Slide or Iron Head again. The Grunt's Pokémon can't do anything. Earthquake beats Liepard and Watchog, or in Liepard's case, X-Scissor does too, and Rock Slide destroys Scolipede. * Zinzolin (Plasma Frigate): Just Zinzolin this time. Again, be careful with Confuse Ray, but other than that, Excadrill will OHKO everything. * Colress (Plasma Frigate): Colress is normally regarded as a hard boss battle, but Excadrill laughs at it. Metang gets OHKO'd by Earthquake. Magneton and Magnezone survive one hit thanks to Sturdy, but they have no way to hit Excadrill, and get beaten up. You have to break Klinklang's Air Balloon first, and then hit it with Earthquake to beat it as well. And Beheeyem? It knows Energy Ball, but gets beaten up by Earthquake or X-Scissor nonetheless. * Shadow battle #1 (Plasma Frigate): All of the Pawniard fall to Earthquake. Absol still can't do anything, and gets beaten by X-Scissor or Earthquake. * Shadow battle #2 (Plasma Frigate): Earthquake the other Pawniard. Accelgor can be easily beaten with Rock Slide. * Shadow battle #3 (Plasma Frigate): More quaking the Pawniard. Banette can burn you, but Earthquake will still 2HKO and Sucker Punch doesn't do much of anything. * Black/White Kyurem (Giant Chasm): White Kyurem knows Fusion Flare. Stay far away. Black Kyurem can use Freeze Shock, but if you see you outspeed, 2HKO it with Iron Head or Rock Slide. * Ghetsis (Giant Chasm): Cofagrigus knows Toxic, but Excadrill is unaffected by it. Use Earthquake to take it out. Beat Toxicroak and Drapion with Earthquake as well. Seismitoad knows Muddy Water, Earthquake and Drain Punch, Eelektross Flamethrower. Avoid them. All of Hydreigon's attacks are not very effective on Excadrill, but a Life Orb boosted Dragon Rush could still 2HKO Excadrill if it were a critical hit. X-Scissor can be used to hit Hydreigon, and then make it faint itself due to Life Orb damage by keeping on healing Excadrill with items. * Hugh (Victory Road): Much like the previous Hugh battle. Take out Unfezant with Rock Slide and Emboar with Earthquake, avoid Simisear, Simipour, Simisage, Samurott and Serperior. Watch out, as Unfezant can use U-turn to switch with a less favorable matchup for Excadrill, and Swagger to be annoying. Also, there is a Bouffalant as well now, but it can use Earthquake. Yet again, stay away. * Elite Four Shauntal (Pokémon League, Ghost-type): Cofagrigus has insane Defense. That is combined with Will-O-Wisp...a bad matchup for Excadrill. Drifblim can't hit Excadrill hard, take it out with Rock Slide. Golurk knows Earthquake, stay away. Banette can't hit Excadrill hard either, but does know Will-O-Wisp. Normally, Earthquake should still be a 2HKO, though. Chandelure carries a Choice Scarf and will always outspeed Excadrill. Stay away. * Elite Four Marshal (Pokémon League, Fighting-type): All of Marshal's Pokémon are Fighting-types with Fighting-type moves. Shouldn't you have guessed it already, don't use Excadrill here. You could try battling Lucario, though, but there's the risk of getting outsped, so it's better to leave it to another Pokémon. * Elite Four Grimsley (Pokémon League, Dark-type): Liepard and Bisharp fall to Earthquake or, in the case of the former two, X-Scissor without a problem. Krookodile knows Earthquake, Scrafty Brick Break. Avoid both of them. * Elite Four Caitlin (Pokémon League, Psychic-type): Watch out for Reuniclus, as it knows Focus Blast. Don't battle it. Take out Musharna with X-Scissor or Earthquake, but keep Reflect and Yawn in mind. Sigilyph isn't able to hit you hard with Ice Beam, and Rock Slide takes it out. Gothitelle can't hit too hard either, and X-Scissor or Earthquake takes it yet again out. Don't battle Metagross if Reflect is up. If it isn't, then Earthquake OHKOs it. * Champion Iris (Pokémon League, Dragon-type): Avoid all of Iris's Dragon-types. Hydreigon knows Fire Blast, Focus Blast and Surf, Druddigon Fire Punch and Focus Blast, and Haxorus Earthquake. Avoid Lapras as well, as it can use Hydro Pump. Archeops can't hit Excadrill hard, take it out with Iron Head or Rock Slide. Then there's Aggron, which doesn't have Sturdy for some reason. That's good, since Earthquake will be a OHKO. * Post-Game: Excadrill is still as useful as before. Just watch out to not pit it against Water-, Fighting- or Ground-types, and you should be fine. }} Moves A level 16 Drilbur comes with Rapid Spin, Mud-Slap, Fury Swipes and Metal Claw. None of these moves are too useful, but Metal Claw is the only Steel-type move the Drilbur line learns through levelling up or through TMs. At level 19 comes Dig, which is a great move, and an absolute must on Drilbur. Hone Claws comes at level 22, but Drilbur honestly is too frail to set up on anything. Slash will be learned at level 26, but will be outclassed by Return, whose TM you already have. At level 29, Rock Slide is learned, Drilbur's second great move. An absolute must on both Drilbur and Excadrill. If you evolved Drilbur at level 31, it will learn Horn Drill at 31, and Earthquake at 36. The former isn't a really good move, the latter is one of the best things you could wish for, as Excadrill with Earthquake basically OHKOs almost anything that doesn't resist it at that point. If you chose not to evolve it yet, Drilbur learns Earthquake at 33, but doesn't learn Horn Drill at all. Considering Drilbur's weak stats at that point, though, you should be better off just evolving Excadrill right off the bat. Swords Dance comes at level 42. It could be useful, but Excadrill lacks the speed to be a real sweeper. However, it's still fantastic against trainers with slower teams, like Caitlin. Sandstorm at level 49 could help with that, if Excadrill has the Ability Sand Rush, but it's not preferred either. Drill Run comes at level 55, but is fully outclassed by Earthquake, which you have for a long time now. And finally, there's Fissure at level 62. Unnecessary and risky. The two TMs you can definitely have when you catch a Drilbur for the first time are Rock Smash, obtained in Virbank Complex, and Return, obtained in Aspertia City. Neither are really good, but they can provide coverage. Dig comes next, on Route 4, but normally your Drilbur should know that move already. Quickly after, Rock Tomb is available in Relic Castle, a great move for Drilbur at that point. Both Swords Dance and Brick Break can be obtained in the Battle Subway or later in the Pokémon World Tournament, but they're not stellar, as the Drilbur line learns the former through levelling up, and the latter will soon be obsolete. Bulldoze is the next TM that comes to mind, although Drilbur/Excadrill already knows Dig, and will soon learn Earthquake, which makes Bulldoze mostly unnecessary. X-Scissor will come on Route 7, and is a very useful coverage move for Excadrill, as it can now hit Grass-types super effectively, while they can't anymore, due to Excadrill now being part Steel-type. Soon after, Shadow Claw can be obtained in Celestial Tower, but on most occasions, Earthquake will be more powerful. Aerial Ace can be obtained in Mistralton City after beating Skyla, but isn't really worth a moveslot. Then, after receiving HM Surf from Alder, you can backtrack to Mistralton Cave to get Rock Slide. However, the former is mostly outclassed by X-Scissor, and the latter should be already known by Excadrill. Hone Claws is obtained in Victory Road, but outclassed by Swords Dance. The last useful TMs come in the postgame, and are Earthquake and Poison Jab. You should already know the former, and the latter is not necessary. The Drilbur line can learn a few moves through tutoring. The first one is Drill Run, but not really worth it, as Earthquake outclasses it. Secondly, there's Stealth Rock. It's a good supportive move, but not as good in-game. It's preferred to not teach it. Magnet Rise is also a possibility, to negate Ground-type attacks. It's really situational, though, and mostly won't be useful enough for a moveslot. The last of the tutor moves is very good, though. The Drilbur line learns only one Steel-type move through levelling up, and that's Metal Claw, so they're happy to hear that through tutoring, they can learn the powerful Iron Head. It's not a must on Excadrill, but definitely a great move. Recommended moveset: Earthquake, Rock Slide, X-Scissor/Swords Dance, Iron Head/Swords Dance Other Drilbur's stats Excadrill's stats * What Nature do I want? Definitely something that boosts Attack or Speed. An Attack boost is usually the best, though. Adamant is the best, but Naughty or Lonely could work as well. Next to those, Jolly, Relaxed and Sassy work as well. * Which Ability do I want? Well...both are only really useful when you're in a sandstorm, and unless you teach Excadrill to use Sandstorm, you'll only be able to use them on Route 4 and in Desert Resort. They're both about equally good...or bad. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? As soon as possible, preferably before Clay. You don't need to wait until Drilbur learns Earthquake at level 33, since it's stats are pretty terrible compared to Excadrill's. You'll want that Ground/Steel-type as soon as possible. * How good is the Drilbur line in a Nuzlocke? Incredible. Not only is it almost a guaranteed catch when using Repels, Excadrill boasts one of the most powerful Attack stats of all Pokémon in Unova. It also has a great type, resisting no less than nine types after evolving, not counting the two immunities it also has. Plus, it learns Earthquake quickly, giving it its most powerful move soon. Its bulk isn't all too great, but it's good enough to take any neutral effective attacks. Two downsides are that it's really weak as a Drilbur, and that it has a nearly useless Ability in-game. However, it is still a great team member to have. For example, it can defeat Colress in the Plasma Frigate on its own, a boss battle that a lot of Pokémon struggle against. Drilbur's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Water, Grass, Ice * Resistances: Poison, Rock * Immunities: Electric * Neutralities: Normal, Fire, Fighting, Flying, Ground, Psychic, Dark, Bug, Ghost, Dragon, Steel Excadrill's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Water, Fire, Fighting, Ground * Resistances: Normal, Flying, Psychic, Dark, Bug, Ghost, Dragon, Steel, Rock (x0.25) * Immunities: Electric, Poison * Neutralities: Grass, Ice Category:Black 2/White 2 Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses